LMID1 Gene Protects Against Lung Cancer

Filed in archive Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics on December 3, 2008

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 703709

University of Nottingham researchers have identified a gene that may help protect against lung cancer. By comparing lung cancer tissues from patients with the disease and comparing it to healthy lung tissues, they found that the LIMD1 gene was missing in the majority of lung cancer samples, indicating that the presence of the LIMD1 gene protects the body against lung cancer.

Dr Greg Longmore's team in the USA supported these findings, using a mouse without the LMID1 gene which developed lung cancer.

Dr Sharp said: "The LIMD1 gene studied in this research is located on part of chromosome 3, called 3p21.

"Chromosome 3p21 is often deleted very early on in the development of lung cancer due to the toxic chemicals in cigarettes, which implies that inactivation of LIMD1 could be a particularly important event in early stages of lung cancer development.

"We are now going to extend these finding by developing LIMD1 as a novel prognostic tool for detection of early stage lung cancer."

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